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Week of June 5 |
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Friday, June 9, 2006
3 Rules for Managing Your Money &
'Mean Girls II'
When I first
started getting serious about managing my money, I felt overwhelmed.
An English major, I’d never done well in math, and what was money
management about if not numbers? Besides, there seemed to be so many
financial products out there—ETF’s, mutual funds, REIT’s, HSA’s
401(k)s, and on and on. Then, who can figure out what the stock
market is doing from day to day? The way Wall Street traders react
to world events—or rumors of world events (what’s the Fed chairman
going to do with rates? . . . where are oil futures going?)—they
might as well be women with a bad case of PMS. Take some Pamprin and
chill!
After
awhile, it helped me to think of financial products as just that:
something I could buy. Put as much thought into saving up for and
purchasing shares in a mutual fund or buying a long term care policy
as you do a pair of shoes or a car and you’ll be doing yourself a
big favor. It can be enjoyable, mentally stimulating and empowering
to research these products. To help me in managing my money, I’ve
come up with three questions I always ask myself before making even
the simplest financial move, whether it’s withdrawing money from a
savings account, selling a stock, selecting a bank, or signing up
for a credit card:
1.
What
are the tax consequences?
2.
How
high are the fees and penalties (and are there any hidden in the
small print)?
3.
How
much interest will I earn—and pay?
There you have it—money management in a nutshell. Not so hard, after
all.
Women in the News:
Everyone’s asking what’s up with conservative pundit Ann Coulter,
who had the incredibly bad taste to suggest in interviews promoting
her new book “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” that the 9-11
widows are overreacting. “I’ve never seen people enjoying their
husbands’ deaths so much,” she commented, according to The
Associated Press, as reported by The New York Times,
yesterday. “And, by the way, how do we know their husbands weren’t
planning to divorce these harpies?”
"Perhaps her book should have been called
'Heartless'," Sen. Hillary Clinton reportedly responded,
coming to the defense of the widows.
According to The Times, Coulter then sent an e-mail in
response saying, in part: "Before criticizing others for being 'mean
to women,' perhaps Hillary should talk to her husband.”
What is this: the script for ”Mean Girls II”? There’s a
lot of talk lately about whether Hillary Clinton (or any woman) is
electable as President of the United States. Women outnumber men at
the polls, but what this squabble proves is that any woman who runs
for President shouldn’t count on her sisters to sweep her into
office.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Thursday, June 8, 2006
The Mother Load
Did you know that the wage gap between mothers and childless women
under age 35 is now greater than the wage gap between young men and
women? That’s a fact pointed out in “MOTHERS’ Economic ABC’s” by the
folks at an organization called Mothers Ought to Have Equal Rights
(MOTHERS). Check out the group’s Web site (www.mothersoughttohaveequalrights.org)
and learn more about the high cost of being a mom in America today.
I chose not to be a mother, in large part because I
resented the compromises I would have to make in attempting that
daring balancing act between work and family, career and motherhood.
A perfectionist, I knew it would be impossible for me to give 100
percent to each. Now I know that, had I chosen to raise a family, I
would have suffered financial penalties, whether I went to work, or
stayed home, or tried to do both. “Motherhood has become the single
biggest risk factor for poverty in America,” according to MOTHERS.
It doesn’t have to be that way! In many European countries,
Government-sponsored day care and health care, as well as paid
maternity leave and other social safety nets, offer financial
support for women who perform the most important unpaid job there
is. Consider this: nannies qualify for Social Security benefits;
mothers don’t.
Am I
pushing some of your hot buttons?
CLICK HERE to vote for the three issues that matter the most
to you in the MOTHERS Economic Empowerment
Agenda. Besides offering lots of information, the site proposes
solutions and provides tools for moms organizing support and action
groups. You can also vent, commiserate and connect in the lively
forums on the site.
Speaking of hot
buttons, on a more trivial note, one of mine is ageist birthday
cards. You know the ones I mean—on the front, witchy hags make
tasteless jokes about sagging body parts and other infirmities of
old age. I was shopping for a card for a friend today and walked out
of the store empty-handed. I’ll pick up a blank card later and
compose my own good wishes. Birthdays are meant for celebrating all
that a person is—and the number on your birth certificate is only a
small part of that!
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Money Trees & Reality Series
A friend of mine grew up the son of a
North Philly cop. He never wastes food, always cleans his plate at
dinner, and, though he’s been a millionaire many times over in his
business career, he still shops at the dollar store and delights in
finding a buy-one, get-one- free bargain. He’s never forgotten the
trouble his parents had making ends meet. In my own family, my
father always struggled to pay the bills that my mother, who had
very expensive tastes, accumulated.
From my parents, I learned by example
that credit cards are an extension of your salary: if you don’t have
enough money to buy what you want, charge it! One of my brothers has
fallen into the same trap; the other, reacting against our parents’
example, has always been cautious with money, investing carefully
for what I’m sure will be a very comfortable retirement someday. I’m
finally coming to grips with my spending habits, and understanding
why I am the way I am with my dough has been a big help.
Psychoanalysts encourage us to look to
our past history to mine insights about our current behaviors; the
same process could be used to figure out how our financial
personalities were formed. It might be an interesting exercise to
draw up a money tree of sorts, tracing your financial genealogy,
identifying your grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles by their
spending habits and their net worth. How far from the money tree did
your seed fall?
ON THE TV BEAT: Was Celine Dion trying
out for a job on a revamped Hollywood Squares? Her gratuitous
appearance as celebrity cheerleader, sitting in a little square,
wringing her hands and occasionally breaking into song, rooting for
a nervous contestant on Deal or No Deal last night, was
pointless and embarrassing. They obviously offered her a deal she
couldn’t refuse.
Over on The Apprentice, another
man was knighted as the latest Trump toady. In five seasons, only
one woman has made the final cut. But this year, in a new twist, the
winner, Brit Sean Yazbeck, announced that he was planning to marry
one of the fired contestants, Tammy Trenta, whom he began dating
during the taping of the show. So Tammy didn’t land the job, but she
did get a marriage proposal. They make a very handsome couple and
this may well be a case of true love, but I couldn’t help thinking
she’d been awarded the booby prize.
The real winners in all of these reality
series, of course, are the networks, which save tons of dough in
production costs.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Welcome to My (Business) Space
Say
what you will about MySpace (www.myspace.com),
Friendster (www.friendster.com),
FaceBook (www.facebook.com)
and any other currently hot social networking site. For my money,
the hottest networking site is
www.LinkedIn.com I say “for my money,” because to make full use
of its potential you do have to pay a price. While a basic profile
is free, premium services, which permit you to directly e-mail other
members, among other things, range from $5 to $200 a month; job
postings cost $95 for 30 days. But it’s worth the dough to get
access to the more than six million high-level professionals active
in 130 fields currently registered on the site.
Use LinkedIn to reach a decision maker,
do research on competitors, find sales and job leads or just make
connections that might pay off for you in your career in the long
run. Say you’re applying for a job and want to find someone within
that company who might be able to give you some insight into its
culture or offer you a recommendation. Chances are someone you know
knows someone who knows someone who can make an introduction for
you. It’s the classic “Six Degrees of Separation” game played out on
line to everyone’s benefit. I’ve never been terribly comfortable
“networking,” but using this site, you’re networking even while
you’re sleeping. My online/new media listing has attracted and
gained me access to CEO’s and venture capitalists.
One caveat:
just as with warnings to teens using MySpace, be careful what you
reveal about yourself in your LinkedIn profile. It should
concisely and compellingly reflect your business skills,
experience, and interests.
The
site doesn’t look as sexy as some of the other social networking
sites—there are no flashy videos or photos posted (though they may
come with time)—but the proof is in the profit. LinkedIn
must be doing something right: In March 2006, this three-year-old
site announced that it is already in the black.
For some great advice on networking offline and how it
can help you in your career, read career coach and motivational
speaker JoAnn
Hines’
“The Biggest Trade Secret of Successful Businesswomen: Attending
Trade Shows Is Great for Your Career!” on
www.makingbreadmagazine.com.
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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Monday,
June 5, 2006
One Good Reason to Keep Your Name
Continuing on
the theme of Friday’s column—marriage—I’m remembering the day,
shortly after my wedding, when I was taking my Graduate Record Exam
to get into a Masters program. We had to line up in alphabetical
order to sign up to take the test, and without thinking, I reported
to the “N” table. I still recall the shock of recognition and
disassociation that came over me when I realized my mistake: I was
no longer a “Newhart” but a “Harlow.” These days, the number of
woman who are changing their name, as I did, after marriage (always
in the majority) is on the rise again, after a long rebellious
period in the ‘70s and ‘80s when the number of those who chose to
keep their maiden names grew. A Harvard University study published
in 2004 reported that, of the college-educated women surveyed, 23
percent kept their maiden names in 1990, compared with only 13
percent in 2000.
I
took my husband’s name, because I kind of liked the sound of it—and
I came to enjoy the joking references by others to that “blonde
bombshell” of the 1920’s and ‘30’s, Jean Harlow. But the patriarchal
tradition that it represented always bugged me. Now I know that,
besides the issue of identity, there is one other very good reason
for keeping your own name: It gives you one less thing to do in that
confusing period of adjustment after marriage.
There can also be some cost associated with filing all the necessary
forms. Double it for hyphenated couples, both of whom have to go
through the process.
Here’s an oddity I stumbled on while writing this: Did you know
there’s a site dedicated to “equal
frequency of name retention, modification and creation between men
and women at marriage and throughout life” and “equality
of patrilineal/matrilineal name distribution for children”?
It’s the Lucy Stone Organization, named after the 19th
century suffragette who fought to improve women’s rights within
marriage. Visit
www.lucystoneleague.org to learn about the history of
name-choice freedom, as well as information on how to change your
name, options for married couples to consider, and some name-choice
stories. There’s even a
Decision Process Quiz
that might help you and your fiancé probe your feelings about
the subject.
If you do change your name or hyphenate
it after marriage or divorce, be sure to notify the Social Security
Administration (SSA) and your payroll department at work. You want
to avoid confusing the Government’s computer system and compromising
your record of lifetime earnings or a tax refund because names don’t
match up. Let the SSA know about your new moniker by filing Form
SS-5 at a local SSA office. The form is also available on the
agency's Web site,
www.ssa.gov, or by calling 1-800-772-1213.
Then, don’t forget to inform any insurance companies and financial
institutions with whom you do business, and get a new driver’s
license and voter-registration card. Whew!
Prosper & enjoy,
Gail Harlow |
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If you like the blog, you’ll love the book.
For more savvy
finance advice, buy
“Making Bread: The
Ultimate Financial Guide for Women Who Need Dough,”
by Gail Harlow and Elizabeth Lewin, available on
Amazon.com and at your local bookstore |
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